The office of the Public Protector has called on Parliament to assist with government departments and organisations that do not cooperate or implement her remedial actions.
Senior management of the Public Protector appeared before Parliament’s Justice Committee to discuss its annual report for the last quarter of 2019/20 and the first quarter of 2020/21 financial year.
Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane says one of the state organs not cooperating with the office is the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
More funds needed
It is that time in the cycle where departments and entities stand cap in hand before Parliamentary committees to ask for an increased budget. The office of the Public Protector says they need an additional R54 million to keep going.
Last year the office asked for R40 million:
Mkhwebane says their investigations are made more difficult due to lack of cooperation from entities like the NPA. She has asked for Parliament’s intervention.
Remedial actions
Mkwebane says other departments also do not implement remedial actions.
While members of Parliament asked for those entities to be named, the Chairperson of the Committee, Bulelani Mangwanishe, cautioned for a more careful approach.
“We can’t just take the list and publish and names and shame. We can’t just do that without due process. We must think carefully about how to handle the situation. The issue with NPA, let’s receive a complaint from the Public Protector and take it from there.”
Mangwanishe added that the committee does not support budget cuts, especially where it is clearly crippling Chapter Nine institutions.
